Peer-Reviewed

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Abstract

This paper seeks to contribute to the existing business strategy and the environment literature by
examining the effect of governance structures on environmental performance within a unique
context of improving environmental governance, policies, regulations and management.
Specifically, we investigate the extent to which corporate board gender diversity, including the
proportion, age and level of education of female directors, affect environmental performance of
Chinese publicly listed corporations. Using one of the largest Chinese datasets to-date, consisting of
a sample of 383 listed A-shares from 2011 to 2015 (i.e., observations of 1,674), our findings are
three-fold. First, we find that the proportion and age of female directors have a positive effect on the
overall corporate environmental performance. Second, our findings indicate that the proportion and
age of female directors also have a positive effect on the three individual environmental
performance components, namely environmental (i) strategy, (ii) implementation and (iii)
disclosure, respectively. Finally, and by contrast, we do not find any evidence that suggests that the
level of education of female directors has any impact on environmental performance, neither the
overall environmental performance measure nor its individual components. Our findings have
important implication for regulators and policy-makers. Our evidence is robust to controlling for
alternative measures, other governance and firm-level control variables, and possible endogeneities.
We interpret our findings within a multi-theoretical framework that draws insights from agency,
legitimacy, neo-institutional, resource dependence, stakeholder, and tokenism theoretical
perspectives.

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Citation

Elmagrhi M, Ntim CG, Elamer AA and Zhang Q (2018) A Study of Environmental Policies and Regulations, Governance Structures and Environmental Performance: The Role of Female Directors. Business Strategy and the Environment. Accepted for publication.

Eco-design is relatively new and fast growing field of research due to its vital importance to the manufacturing industry and its related environmental issues such as reducing waste, and CO2 emission. A major EU programme relating to the environment is the waste of Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) directive. The (WEEE) directive specifies ten categories and a voltage range which is up to 1.000 volts AC or 1.500volts DC.
The developed framework came for the implementation of Eco-design principles that helps to take into account the adaption of the (WEEE) directive and the restriction of hazard substances (RoHS) used in electrical and electronic equipments. As a result of identify gaps and needs such as a lack of a comprehensive Eco-design framework and the need to integrate it to the normal business operation.
In this research the PDCA framework for Eco-design and WEEE directive will be discussed. The framework will encompass all of the Eco-design¿s implementation and integration factors and activities such as WEEE and RoHS directives, Eco-design management, Environmental legislations, Eco-design tools and considerations. The literature review covers the topic of Eco-design¿s related issues, and WEEE and RoHS directives rules.
Based on comprehensive questionnaire survey of Eco-design, WEEE and RoHS issues and activities among a sample of environmentally aware companies, statistical analysis is carried out using SPSS software. Then the findings of the survey triangulated with the findings of the literature review formed the basis of the design and implementation plan of the proposed framework

Environmental decisions made by individuals, civil society and the state involve questions of economic efficiency, environmental effectiveness, equity and political legitimacy. These four criteria are constitutive of economic, social and environmental dimensions of sustainable development, which has become the dominant rhetorical device of environmental governance. We discuss the tendency for different strands of social science to focus on particular subsets of the four criteria and argue that such a practice promotes solutions that do not acknowledge the dynamics of scale and the heterogeneity of institutional and historical contexts. We propose a more interdisciplinary approach to understanding environmental decisions that seeks to identify legitimate and context-sensitive institutional solutions producing equitable, efficient and effective outcomes. We examine two examples that illustrate the indivisible and integrated nature of the four criteria in actual environmental decisions. The first example relates to international efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the second one to local resource management in the UK. We utilise the example to outline a new agenda for future research on environmental governance and decision-making.

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